downie



(No Model.) 2 Sheets -Sheet 1.

RM. DOWNIB. DRILLING MACHINE.

No 527,237. Patented Oct. 9, 1894.

(No'ModeL) 2 Shee'ts-Shget 2.

" R. M. DOWNIE.

DRILLING MACHINE.

Patented Oct. 9, L894 FliG-L Wilgczsscs UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT M. DOWN IE, OF BEAVER FALLS, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THEKEYSTONE DBILLER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

DRILLING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 527,237, dated October9, 1894. Application filed December 18, 1893. Serial No. 493,921. (Nomodel.)

T at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT M. DOWNIE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Beaver Falls, in the county of Beaver and State ofPennsylvania, have invented a new and useful DrillingMachine, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to drilling machines for Artesian and oil wells;and it has for its object to effect certain improvements in theoperating mechanism and the tools of a drilling machine, whereby theefficiency and durability of such machine shall be greatly increased.

It is well known, to those skilled in the art of drilling, thatheretofore it has been difficult to successfully employ a wire cable orI rope for drilling purposes, for the reason that such rope or cable istoo rigid and has not a sufficient spring in itself to allow the stringof tools to successfully work, while at the same time a severe strain isnot only placed upon all parts of the machine but upon the wire ropeitself. At the same time, the advantages of a wire rope or cable havebeen recognized, on account of its durability and strength, and thepresent invention is therefore primarily designed to provide adrillingmachine so constructed and. used in connection with certain tools,whereby the employment of a wire cable for drilling may be renderedpracticable. Furthermore, it is well known that in order to drill a holeeither round or straight, it is necessary that the drilling tools or bitbe turned constantly so that the drilling shall be properlyaccomplished, and it is also known ithat when the drilling tools havebeen buried, the drilling rope or cable is under such astrain, that itwill naturally tend to untwist or turn in one direction, that is, whenthe entire weight of the string or set of tools is suspended therefromat the point of time when the drill is being lifted off of the bottom ofthe well. Now by the employment of a wire rope or cable, this turn ortwist may be utilized for automatically turning the bit in the hole soas to keep up the proper turninglor shifting thereof in the hole, and byreason of using awire cable it will be at once apparent to drillers thatwhen the string or set of drilling tools havetheirentire weightsuspended from the wire cable after being buried, the cable will be sorigid that when it turns or twists in response to the unravelingtendency of the weight thereon, the torsional energy thereof will besufficiently strong to turn the bit, which will follow the twisting ofthe cable as perfectly as if a rigid iron shaft were employed. To thisend, therefore, the present invention utilizes the turn or twist of thewire cable to effect the turning of the bit, and provides a construcsionwhereby this turning or twisting of the cable may be depended uponforthe work required of it.

With these and other objects in view which will readily appear as thenature of the in.- vention is better understood, the same con-. sists inthe novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts hereinaftermore fully described, illustrated and claimed.

In the drawings:Figu re 1 isa verticallongitudinal sectional view of thefront portion of a drilling machine constructed in accordance with thisinvention, sufficient of the machine showing to illustrate the featuresclaimed; Fig. 2 is a front end view of the construction shown in Fig. 1.Fig. 3 is a detail side elevation of the. drilljar, or more properlyspeaking, set of drill jars; employed in connection with the drillingmachine. Fig. dis a central longitudinal sectional view of theconstruction shown in Fig. 3. ,Fig. 5 is a transverse sec tional view onthe line 13-37 of Fig. 4. Fig. .6 is a similar view on the line y-y ofFig. 4..

' Referring to the accompanying drawings, A represents an ordinary frameof a drilling machine, which is usually mounted on wheels so as toprovide means for readily moving the machine from place to place, andfrom the front end of the frame A, arises the frame derrick B, which issufficiently high as to enable the proper length of stroke being givento the set of drilling tools.

The frame derrick B, arising from the front 9 5 end of the machine frameA,preferably comprises the opposite pairs of standards 0, suitablyconnected by the transverse, braces c,to provide a derrick sufficiently,strong forthe work, and the opposite pairs of standards 0, too formguides for the vertically moving springsupport ed derrick pulley D. Thederrick pulley D, is constructed of a suitable size and strength toaccommodate the stroke of the drillingtools and to sustain the weightthereof, and such pnlley is mounted on the journal pin or axle d, whichjournal pin or axle is mounted to turn in the opposite bearings d, atthe upper end of the bearing yoke E. The journal pin or axle d, isprovided with the projected spindles e, extended beyond the bearings atthe upper end of the bearing yoke E, and which are guided to workbetween the opposite pairs of standards 0, which hold the pulley steadyin its vertical or upright reciprocation,but it will of course beunderstood that a supplemental guide frame or other means for guidingthe movement of the derrick pulley may be supplementally attached to theupper end of the derrick if found desirable.

The bearing yoke E, which supports the large derrick pulley Dinposition, is provided with a lower hollow stem or shank F, guidedto movethrough the guide blocks f, arranged transversely between the oppositepairs of derrick standards, and the lower end of said hollow stem orshank preferably carries a flanged retaining cap f, which receives andholds in position the upper end of the coiled pulley supporting springG.

The coiled. pulley supporting spring G, is mounted on the rod 9, havingone endthereof fitting in the hollow stem or shank F, andits other endin the upper end of the vertically reciprocating pitman H, which pitmanis also providedat its upper end with a'fianged cap. h, which formsaseatfor the lower end of the spring G, to hold the same properly inposition. The lower end of the pitman. H, is pivoted to the upper end ofan eccentric arm I, projected from an eccentric strap 1', workingoverthe shaft eccentric t", mounted on the transverse drive shaft The driveshaft 2' is mounted in suitable bearings at. the front end of themachine frame and. carries near one end thereof the drive wheel 11 whichis intended to receive a belt for imparting motion to the drive shaft,and thereby giving the proper reoiprocations to the derrick pulley D.

The vertically moving spring supported pulley D, isadapted to receivethereover the wire drilling rope or cableH', one endof which is wound onthe ordinary rope reel h, journaled on the machine frame A, and the'other end of which is connected to a string or set of drilling tools,which in the present invention is intended to consist of a set of drilljars J, specifically constructedfor use in connection with a wire cable,a stem j, connected to the lower end of the jars, and the bit 3'',"

connected to the lower end of the stem, it being found that by employinga wire drilling rope or cable the sinker-bar may be dispensed with, andthe entire set of tools shortened owing to the added weight given by thewire rope or cable. It will be obvious that. when the drive shaft is setin motion, the reciprocation of the derrick pulley will impart thenecessary stroke to the drilling tools to effect thevdrilling of a well,and it is to be noted that by reason of the direct coupling of the largetop derrick pulley with the drive shaft therebelow, by means of aneccentric or crank connection, having a shorter stroke than the diameterof saidpulley, the stroke of the eccentric or crank multiplies thestrokeof the drilling tools sufficiently, so as to render these means ofoperating the drill very efficient. It will be noticed that by theoperation of this device the periphery of the large rope pulley travelsabout its axis only one half the distance which it would have to travelif the pulley were stationary in the derrick. This is a very importantimprovement in connection with the drill cable, because heretofore theprincipal wear on the drill cable wasin continuously passing forward andback over this pulley and stopping and starting it by its frictiontherewith. It should also be noted that in operation this pulley musttravel forward and back from sixty to seventy return trips per minute,and the speed of its periphery when so traveling must be the speed of abody falling freely, or some sixteen feet per second, the

length of stroke being from twenty-four to forty-eight inches. Now ifthe pulley were journaled stationary in the derrick, and,if to get suchspeed upon the falling drilling tools,

the power were delivered to the cable by means of rotating the rope drumh', it will be seen at. once that the periphery of the rope pulley mustattain a speed forward and back equal to the speed of a falling body,andsuch speed would have to be suddenly attained, and again suddenlystopped, sixty or seventy times per minute, solely by the friction ofthecable. This wouldcause great wear and soon destroy the cable. By themechanism described, the speed of the periphery attains only one halfthev speed of a falling body, the cable travels on the pulley only halfthe distance around the periphery, and the power being delivered to thepulley, instead of to the drum-end of the line as heretofore, themomentum of the periphery of the pulley will not interfere with therapid reverse in'the direction of the cables travel. This application ofpower to a drill cable is, I believe wholly novel, and is ofigreatadvantage in that it enables a much greater speed to be attained than byany other device heretofore used. noted, thatby reason of interposing aspring between the pitman H, and the bearing yoke of the pulley, suchpulley will yield sulficiently to give the necessary spring to the wirecableior rope, and thereby relieve it from the strain which wouldotherwise bend or kink the same and render it impracticable for drillingpurposes, and it will thereforebe seen that a spring supported pulley ofthe character described is essentially necessary for thepracticableemployment of. a wire rope or cable for drilling.

The set of jars J, referred to, are suspended It is to be furtherdirectly from one endof the wire cable H, and such set of jars or moreplainly speaking, the drill jar, has an outer cylindrical jar casing K.The cylindrical jar casing K, is provided with an upper interiorlythreaded endk, and a lower solid end k',projected below the lower end ofthe interior bore of the casing so as to give additional weight to theset of drilling tools, and which is provided in its lower extremity witha threaded socket L, which removably receives the screw or pin Z,-at.the upper end of the stem j. The cylindrical j at casingiK is furtherprovided at a suitable point with the squared sides M, which admit of asuitable wrench for handling the jars, and at a point below the upperiuteriorly threaded end of the casing the same is provided with the sideventslots N, of .a suificient length'and width which provides for a freeingress or egress of water during the process of drilling,.and while themoving member of the jars is in motion toward the end of the stroke.

The upper interiorly threaded end is, of the cylindrical jar casing K,is adapted to. detachably receive the exteriorly threaded guid e and jarplug 0. The exteriorly threaded guide plug 0, fits snugly within theupper threaded endof the casing and is provided with a central guideopening 0, a squared wrench head 0, at its upper outer end, and a highlytempered innerjar end 0 which is adapted to receive the blow or jar fromthe upper end of the jar head P, the latter having a movement inside ofthe casing below the guideplug at the upper end thereof. The moving jarhead P, is also provided at its up-' per end with a highly tempered jarend p, which is that part of the head adapted to come in contact withthe lower tempered jar end of the guide plug, and by reason of temperingthe contacting jar portions the metal is prevented from spreading andthe wear on theserparts reduced to a minimum;

The moving jar head P, is provided with a central opening Q, in whichone end of the wire rope or cable H, is securely fastened by solderingor other suitable means, and at the upper end of said opening Q, thehead P, is provided with a threaded socket g, which detachably receivesthe lower threaded end of the rope or cable guide tube R, which isarranged to slide freely in the central guide opening 0, of the upperguide plug 0. The rope or cable guide tube R, serves to hold the portionof the drilling rope or cable, which works inside of the jar casing,perfectly straight and guides it in its longitudinal movement, and saidguide tube is provided with an upper flared end S, which admits of afree lateral play or swing of the rope or cable without presenting anysharpened edges thereto. A modification of this method of attaching thedrilling cable to the moving jar head P, which I may employ is to fastenthe cable into thesupper end of the guide tube R, at the point S, inFig. 4, and

in this latter construction the guide tube R, 4

may or may not be made solid in its lower portion and screwed or rivetedinto the moving jar head P. In this latter case the guide tube will beconsidered as an extension upward of the solid jar head P, suchmodification being in all respects the exact equivalent of theconstruction shown in the drawings, Fig 4.

Now by reason of employing the specific constructions of drill jar justdescribed, in connection with the wire rope or cable H, it

will be seen that the use of sinker bars is unnecessary, and the entirelength of the set of drilling tools may be shortened, because the heavywire rope forms a part of the moving weight of the tools, and byextending into the jar casing of the jars and being connected to themoving jar head, the rope forms a substantial part of the upper half ofthe drill jars, and gives additional weight to such jars, so as torender the same especially useful in the connection claimed. i

The operation of ordinary drill jars is well known to those skilled inthe art, such jars being simply employed to start up a drill from thebottom of the well, so as to prevent the drill bit from becoming fast inthe mud or crevices of the rock; but the jars herein described servethree or more very important andfdistinct purposes in addition to theabove. These purposes are first, they, in operation, turn the drillingtools automatically a portion of a turn at each stroke of the drill;second, they provide for taking up the excess of cable length which maybe in the well at the end of the downward stroke, preventing the kinkingof the wire cable at the top of the tools. This is efiected partly bythe jar head P, dropping down in. its pocket formed within the casing,partly by the spring G, and partly by a means hereinafter described;third, the momentum of the jar head P, upon its vertical axis, inturning, serves a v ry important purpose in making efiicient andutilizing the torsional power of the rope to turn the drillautomatically at each stroke. To make these points clear it will benecessary to describe the action of the jars at different points duringthe stroke, from which it will be readily seen that if the jar head P,was notfreeto turn upon its axis in either direction, or if said jarhead P, had any frictional contact with any other part of the drilling,tool, as for instance a stuffing box around the guide tube R, frictionclutches, dogs or ratchets, it would not serve the purpose intended inthis invention. To describe then, the action of the jars:l3efore thestrain. is applied to the drilling cable to lift the string of tools, itis seen that the jar head P, is neitherjin contact with the upper jarhead 0, nor any other part of the drilling tools. At this point of time,the cable will have, what is called, its normal twist, but as 50011 asthe strain is put upon the cable by into frictional contact with the jarhead 0. At this instant, and owing to the fact that a strain tends tolengthen a rope by partially untwisting it, and owing again to the factthat the cable cannot run its twist out at the upper end, the tendencyof the cable to untwist will be imparted to its lower end, and so soonas the drill bitj', has been lifted out of contact, with the bottom ofthe well, the set of drilling tools will begin to obey the turningtendency of the cable. This willcontinue as long as the strain is on thecable or" during the up stroke. At the end of the up stroke, thedrilling tools will "have gained a momentum on their axis which willcontinue to keep them revolving in that direction until they strike therock at the end of their down stroke.

Now by the employment of the spring G, upon the shaft which elevates therope pulley, it will be noticed that the drilling tools will receiveduring their up stroke a toss or impulse which will elevate them to aconsiderable distance beyond that represented by the throw of theeccentric or crank 11', and hence the downward stroke of the eccentricwill have begun before the set of drilling tools will begin theirdescent. The jar head P, will be the first to feel the release of thecable for the downward stroke and will drop downward in its casing,releasing its frictional hold or impact on the jar head 0. This willtake place at and during the down stroke. At the instant of release, thecable. will recover its normal amount of twist, the jar head P,revolving back freely and unimpeded with the cable. It will also benoticed that the jar head P, being of considerable weight, will receivefrom the cable a sharp backward impulse or revolution upon its axis,which impulse will carry it back to and some distance beyond its formerstarting point from the normal twist of the cable, which it would not doif it were a mere swivel. This excess of twist beyond the normal will besaved and secured by the then applied friction of the two heads toassist in a. still greater torsional power when the next strain comes onthe drilling cable. In fact, in practice it is found that after a timethe wire cable becomes so soft and flexible, and its torsional powerso'weak that it will not turn the drills under all circumstances, unlessthistorsion is accu mulated from stroke to stroke until the torsion isgreat enough toeffect the turning. In order co-secure this service itisobvious that if any ratchet, spring, or frictional device wereintroduced to retard the quick and prompt back action of thejar head P,upon its axis,-and prevent its revolving back freely, at the slackeningof the cable, it would prevent the cable from twisting back fully'to itsnormal unstretched condition;

The device claimed not only allowsthejar head P, to revolve with theutmost freedom, but the surrounding casing protects it from string ofdrilling tools to a rope bymeans of a loosely swiveled connection,usually called a rope socket, but it is new to dispense with all ropesockets, swiveled or otherwise,

and connect the cable directly to swiveled and self turning jars; also,it is novel to construct a set of jars the friction of whose free memberagainst the opposing face of the rigid one, serves to automaticallyrevolve the drilling too 1s bythe torsion of the rope. It W is alsonovel, as I believe, to combine the swiveled connection andthe jars insuch manner as to avoid the use of a heavy sinker bar above the jars.

The sinker bar is a dead weight and ofv no efficient value whatever,except to give weight to the free member of the jars in knocking thetools loose, and in addition to the foregoing it is also novel to makethe weight and momemtum of the free jarhead P,-revolving back upon itsaxis, a means of accumulating, from stroke to stroke, thetorsion of therope to compel the drill bit to turn, even if greatly impeded-by the'mudwhich accumulates in the well while drilling.

Jars constructed as described, serve, as stated, the additional functionof taking care of and protecting the surplus of line, preventing thethrowing of kinks in the line at the top of the guide tube R, and thuspreventing breakage'at that point, where breakage is sure to occur if acomplete loop should be thrown into the cable at that point. This isaccomplished in the following way: As is well known, a revolving line orshaft is not nearly so liable to bend or'kink as-one'mo tionless on itsaxis. Now by virtue of the fact that the jar head P, is free from allfrictional or ratchet contact with anything else, so soon as relieved ofthe strain of the cable, it will revolve freely from the recoveringtorsion of the cable, preventing kinking; also the jar head P, beingatthe same time free to drop down in its pocket formed by the casing,prevents the surplus rope from looping on itselfat the top of the tubeR. In short, at the moment the bit stops its descent either fromstriking the bottom of the well or any obstruction in the well, the jarcasing of the jars is suddenly stopped, while the wire drilling rope orcable continues to move downward sufficiently so as to lower the jarheadP, out of contact with the guide or jar plug 0, at the upper end ofthe jar casing and for this reason the jars described effectuallyprevent the, rope or cable from bending or kinking in the event of thetools be coming wedged or stuck in the wellbefore reaching the bottom.This is due to the fact that the drilling rope or cable is rigidlyfastened to the jar head P, and should the drilling tool. becomesuddenly wedged, it will be seen that the downward movement of thedrilling rope or cable, if in advance of the tools, is not interrupted,since the jar head I will continue to slide downward after the ar casinghas stopped, and thereby prevent such an injury to the rope as noted,and if it were notfor this movement the rope would tend to coil or kinkup at a point directly above the jars such as shown in dotted line inFig. 3, of the drawings, and would soon break.

Changes in the form, proportion and the minor details of constructionmay beresorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificingany of the advantages of this invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed, and desired to besecured by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a drilling machine, the combination of a spring supported derrickpulley, a drill jar havlng an independent longitudinally movable andfreely revoluble part adapted to support the entire weight of the stringof tools, and a wire drilling cable arranged over said pulley andconnected to said longitudinally movable and freely revoluble part ofthe drill jar, said part of the drill jar being adapted to freely rotatein response to the torsional energy of the cable when relieved of theweight of the tools, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with a well drilling rope or cable; of a cylindricalswivel drill jar adapted to have one of its members suspended from thelower end of said rope and its other member connected to the drillingtool, said swivel drill jar being adapted to turn bodily with thedrilling rope as the same untwists in response to the suspended weightthereon, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination with a well drilling rope or cable, of a cylindricalswivel drill jar having a casing and an independently revoluble jar headmoving longitudinally therein and attached to the lower end of saiddrilling rope or cable, substantially as set forth.

4. In combination with a drilling cable; of a set of jars comprising acasing having a fixed upper jar plug and a movable jarhead arranged toindependently rotate within the casing below said plug and attached tothe lower end of the drilling cable said movable jar head being adaptedto have a jarring and frictional contact with the upper fixed plug,substantially as setforth.

5. A drill jar comprising a cylindrical casing having an upper guide orjar plug provided with a lower tempered jar end, and an innerlongitudinally moving and independently revoluble jar head adapted to becon nected to the lower end of the drilling rope or cable and providedwith an upper tempered jar end, said inner jar head being adapted tofreely rotate within the casing when relieved from contact with theupper jar plug, substantially as set forth.

6. In combination with a wire drilling cable; of a set of jarscomprising a cylindrical casing having side vent slots and a lower solidend, a perforated guide plug detachably fitted into the upper end of thecasing, an inner longitudinally movable and independently revoluble jarhead arranged to work below the said guide plug and connected to thelower end of the drilling cable, and a cable guide tube fitted atitslower end into said jar head and adapted to slide inthe central openingof the guide plug, substantially as set forth.

7. In combination with the wire drilling cable; of a set of jarscomprising a casing having an upper jar plug and inclosinga pocket belowsaid plug, and a longitudinally moving and independently revoluble jarhead arranged within the casing pocket below said plug and attached tosaid drilling cable, said head being adapted to move below the jar plugin the pocket to take up the surplus length of the drilling cable,substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto afiixedmy signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT M. DOWNIE.

Witnesses:

M. A. DOWNIE, J AMEs F. MERRIMAN.

